"What happened at the Northguard Massacre?" asked Xeno.
Marline started to chuckle and then laugh for a minute while Danso and Xeno looked at each other puzzled. Xeno whispered to Danso silently.
"Did I make a joke by accident?" asked Xeno.
"I don't believe so," replied Danso.
Marline had stopped laughing after breaking her usual character and returned to her stone-like face yet again.
"May I ask you a question?" asked Marline.
"I don't think you are in a position to ask questions, Marline Hermes," said Danso.
"True…I shall answer your question first then," replied Marline.
"Start talking or else…" said Danso pointing at the phone with a mischievous smile.
Marline hated and hated that smile.
It made her feel powerless, yet she could do nothing since her days of hard work would go to waste if she was caught here and now.
"Shall we sit somewhere else?" asked Marline.
Jullian brought them to a place in the Black Market with many benches and tables. The four of them took their seats and filled up a table.
And so she began to start telling the tale of the clan that once lived in Northguard City. The Clan without a name. The Northguard City was never officially a part of Lukia until the incident' ending. It was its own independent nation with its own king, government etc. It was a land in the sky.
It was an independent nation, until the Northguard City massacre.
The Northguard Kingdom was the entirety of the island and the city was nothing more than the capital of the kingdom. I was raised in a village away from the city.
The Clan without a name ruled over Northguard City for over one-thousand years with a system of different rulers in each era. Instead of splitting time into years and months, they split time into only Eras. An Era lasts as long as the king lives, for example the last king of Northguard City was King Cameron and that was called the Cameron Era and it ended after the Clan of Nothing massacred the Northguard citizens and disappeared out of nowhere.
Birthdays also work differently, as since they do not have contact with the Land Beneath, which was what the citizens of Northguard City called the Earth that was below them, they did not have a proper system of time and they're age was just how many days old they were or for really old people, the amount of Era's they lived through.
The Northguard Kingdom had three rulers that governed a specific part of the city. There was the King, who was the absolute ruler and his word is everyone's command, the Ghost, who was the strongest person in Northguard City and the King's right hand man to do any missions, and the Counselor, who dealt with everyday events and celebrations while maintaining peace. If the King dies then all the rulers are thrown off the end of the city to the Land Beneath.
It was a gruesome and painful system, since barely anyone lived the fall. The city was around ten-thousand meters and it keeps propelling itself upwards due to the soul energy core in the center of the island negating the effects of gravity slowly. Then, after King James died, the Ghost of Northguard at the time and the Counsellor at the time both were thrown off.
The Ghost's name was Luke and the Counsellor's name was Charles. Using their intricate soul energy powers to control gravity by learning about the core that powers the island, Luke managed to survive without any major injuries but Charles could not. It was said that Charles died and Luke swore revenge on the person who killed James and the city for killing Charles.
This part of this story is nothing more than speculation, but what probably happened next was that Luke managed to propel and teach everyone gravity magic before creating a clan that ascended and massacred the entire city.
What happened next was fact since it was recorded by Chiro Zanami himself, hearing the commotion of the conflict, the Calamity of Lukia went and single handedly stopped the massacre before everyone died and gave the citizens of Northguard a refugee in the form of the Land Beneath or Lukia. After some time King Cameron died due to old age and Lukia adopted the city as its own and created many pathways and teleportation pads to the city.
Marline had completed the story and was waiting for Danso's and Anon's reaction. Danso did not have any major expression but she could see some amount of anger in Anon's face.
"Xu! There truly are no records of you on this continent!" screamed Xeno in his brain.
"Oh I forgot to mention, two people, who were very powerful also had a dispute in the massacre, that was a side story that no one knows anything about, it was a dispute between the Ghost and the King of the Era while also being a dispute between the city and the people thrown to the Land Beneath," said Marline.
Xeno had a blank face while relieving all the painful memories.. "Well it was none other than the dispute between me and Xu,"
Meanwhile, a huge voice on the speakers was blaring across the Black Market.
"The Dark Auction has just ended!" said the voice.
The crowd came back from the room of the Dark Auction with some angry faces, sad faces, and some gleaming with the fresh new item they bought.
Nicole sat on a bench drinking a sip of beer as she played around with her axe. She wanted to test it out somewhere so she thought the practice arena was the best place to do so. Yet, she could not stop thinking about the sudden meeting with Danso and Anon. A feeling of suspiciousness crept over her and she glanced over the table to see the Mayor of Northguard City, Danso, Anon, and another dark skinned person all talking.
She did not want to be rude and stare so she left the table and went to the hidden room in the sewers to try her new toy out.
Inside the gates of the room, there were many wooden dolls moving and targets. The room was already preoccupied by archers and swordsmen fighting, dueling and practicing. The clash of metal against each other was a pleasant noise for Nicole's ears to listen to.
She saw another woman walk up to her. She had short black hair, and she was short.
"Hello my name is Aria," introduced Aria.
"Hello? Do I know you?" replied Nicole.
"No, no, you were the only free one here so I thought we could duel," asked Aria.
It was something Nicole thought she would not do since she just bought her weapon but what's the point of buying a weapon if you don't use it? So she agreed to the duel and they went to the corner most room to the right and entered the dueling room.
A robotic voice started to count down to 3. And once the timer hit zero, both of the women rushed at each other. Aria used her spear to attempt to stab Nicole but she brushed it off with a swing of her mace. The mace was heavy and Nicole was accustomed to a sword so it did prove a little difficult.
Yet, Nicole started to get the hang of the Mace's weight. Whenever she swung it upwards, gravity would just swing downwards for her so she could save energy, and with 1st stage sorcery it could prove to be extremely powerful.
After a minute of dueling, Nicole smashed the Mace on the ground to create cracks on the ground and Aria quickly dodged to gaping cracks with the void beneath and Nicole rushed towards her and hit her with a gentle tap on her head.
Aria decided to forfeit and the battle ended.
"Good game," said Aria.
"Thank you, you played well! Hope we meet again," said Nicole wishing her farewells and walking away.
Nicole walked back to the main Black Market to see a ruckus going on. Everyone was running and it was just chaos. Nicole quickly grabbed a person.
"What is going on?" asked Nicole.
"If you know what is good for you, run away," shivered the man in fear as he sprinted away, colliding with other people at the exit sign.
Meanwhile, shining red sirens blared and Nicole covered her left ear to try and reduce the noise. She went the opposite way of the people who were running, crashing into multiple people as a result. Then she made her way into the crowd and saw a pool of blood.
Anon's body on the floor with a hole in his stomach.
Then she turned her head around to find Danso.
"Where was he?" thought Nicole.
Nicole shook her head and searched with more intent walking across the scene. More stench of blood was smelt by her and she checked as much as she could. Sweat trickled from her hair to her nose.
Ten minutes ago. A sword stabbed Danso in the stomach and he turned around to see who it was.
"Xeno…Why?" said Danso.